We got engagements a year late.

Back in July, Elisha Braithwaite of EB Photography opened a giveaway for a free shoot with her in honor of a new full-frame camera she had just bought, with preference given to people who were already married or who had never gotten pictures done. I had been following her on Instagram for a few weeks and I, no joke, almost jumped straight up into the air when I saw her post about it. She invited interested couples to email her pictures and a blurb of why they wanted a shoot. 

I typed that email up like a madman. I have told myself since our engaged days that I would get pictures of Ryan and I. Because of budget restraints, Ryan and I didn't get engagements. Our announcement photo was one my dad took in our back yard. I wanted professional pictures of this blissful, amazing time of life so badly, and Elisha's giveaway literally felt like a miracle! After a few days I got a response from Elisha saying that she would love to photograph us for our anniversary! AHH I almost died of happiness. Ryan didn't understand what the fuss was all about, but he just doesn't get how much pictures mean to me. [: I'm so lucky to have a guy who is willing to do things that he knows make me happy, even if he's not super thrilled about it.

Elisha and her boy were the coolest people to hang out with! We had so much fun with them. Heck, I'll take any excuse to make googlie eyes and kiss my husband for an hour. Elisha was the perfect mix of letting us do our own thing, while still giving us pose ideas so we didn't look like awkward weirdos. For the most part, the shoot was totally candid, which is everything I wanted. 

I love the love I have with this guy, and I love having pictures that show it. I am so happy with these.

I just love this green-eyed boy.

Elisha is a fantastic, talented photographer and her images are not only beautiful, but needle-sharp due to the fantastic camera she's chosen (I appreciate things like that). She is the sweetest person ever and is so fun to hang out with! She shoots in the Northern Utah region and loves travel. Hook up with her if you're reading this and like her stuff. [:  

San Francisco birthday weekend.

The week before my birthday, we decided to plan a spontaneous trip to one of my favorite cities for a weekend birthday extravaganza on a budget. We got Alaska Airlines standby passes thanks to Ryan's dad, and stayed (for CHEAP) about 20 minutes away from the city thanks to AirBnB (seriously you should check out that website right now. It's addictive. Ask Ryan. He's already got a list of places for us to go in Europe).

We didn't have a whole lot of time to plan, but this was my SF bucketlist:

1. Walk through Golden Gate Park (we ended up getting off at the wrong bus stop so I really got my wish with this one. It is HUGE and beautiful!)

2. Spend a day at the California Academy of Science (I. loved. this. place. They had a giant walk-through rainforest dome, dozens of amazing aquarium tanks, a planetarium... I could go on and on. Admission was pricey but we deem it TOTALLY worth it.)

3. Baker Beach (Pretty pretty views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Plus, the first time I had seen the ocean in like six months. Oh man. It was great.)

4. Land's End Point (Lots of cool trails, beautiful ocean views, and some historic sites that Ryan was obsessed with.)

5. Fisherman's Wharf & Pier 39 (Classic tourist site. It was fun to go back here and relive memories of this road trip years ago. The place kind of reminds me of the Seattle Waterfront. Except for of course that Seattle is better because... Seattle.)

6. Drive across the Golden Gate Bridge (Fun to think that the last time I did that was two years ago doing possibly one of the most psychotic and fun things I've ever done - Ragnar.)

7. Muir Woods National Monument (Heaven on earth. Made my lil dendrochronologist heart real happy.)

8. Grandview Park & the 16th Avenue Mosaic Steps (Incredible view and beautiful stairs! Though a lot of them... Man. That was a quad workout.)

9. Drive Lombard Street (We did it twice in a row. Booyah.)

Things not included in the list but ended up happening:

• A flat tire downtown. Changed that bad boy like total bosses. Teamwork.
• Free fireworks show during dinner one night. Like, LEGIT fireworks. They knew it was my birthday.
• Ending up in what we later found out was one of the SF's most famous taverns and turning down the offered alcoholic drinks for a caesar salad and french toast (me looking especially innocent with 'BYU' emblazoned across my chest). I wish I could have gotten a picture of our server's face.
• Totally wasted SF Giants fans all over the place.
• Visiting Ghirardelli Square three separate times and perfecting our look of surprise when walking through the doors and getting the free chocolate ("Oh what's this? For me? Why, I don't know what to say!").  

 

 

 

 

 

Bottom line: birthday weekend was a success. We loved this trip. I love being with Ryan.

My husband spoils me big time.

Status update.

Something I've been wanting to start. A short blurb about what each of us are up to so I can remember when I'm going through past posts.

I'm currently the Relief Society accompanist in our ward, a calling I've had since I think the beginning of this year. I'm still working as a research assistant for one of my professors in the dendrochronology lab (Dendro = tree, and chrono = time. Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings and all the environmental/climatic factors that they can tell us about from the past. In the lab we study trees that are up to 1,200 years old and use them to reconstruct the climate and precipitation patterns of northern Utah.) I can't believe it's been a year and a half since I started. I'm now senior RA with my own team. Lately Dr. B has hired four new RAs and I've been training two of them to sand and cross date cores. We've been focusing on Tanner Ridge, a site up in Spanish Fork Canyon/Diamond Fork Canyon. I've got a good team and they're catching on quickly. [: I'm also a TA and grader for Dr. B's 303 class, Biogeography. Awesome class. I really enjoyed it when I took it. Grading is HARD though. It took me a week to grade the first midterm. I sweated over being too easy or too hard on them. But now I'm a pro. And lastly, I'm the supervisor of the BYU weather station. I've been there for a year and a half, too. That time blew by. I'll be graduating in December and am looking for jobs in my spare time.

Ryan is a Sunday School class president in our ward. Perfect for him. He loves to talk with people and get to know them. His job at SkyRocket Media is going great, and he's so good at what he does. While I do homework in the evening he practices his Dutch, reads his latest book Naked Economics, keeps up on his nerdy shows (currently Gotham and Agent of Shield), and listens to NPR and especially his latest addiction, a nonfiction murder mystery podcast called Serial. [: He still does most of the cooking and I pinch myself that I found a guy like him every night.

We recently started watching The War, Kevin Burns' documentary on WWII, as well as Battlestar Galactica, which I've never watched before. We still go to Art City Trolley about twice a month and just found an awesome Mongolian grill in Spanish Fork that I think we'll start to frequent as well. It's amazinggg.

Life is good.